Thursday, November 03, 2016

Who Killed JonBenét? jolts us to Christmas 1996 in Boulder, Colorado. Christmas
lights and snow set the backdrop, but instead of feeling the traditional warm
and fuzzies you might expect from a holiday season story, this movie recounts
the mysterious details of the true-life murder of a little girl, JonBenét.

JonBenét was the
six-year-old daughter of John and Patsy Ramsey—wealthy, highly respected church-going
citizens of Boulder, Colorado. She was also a petite pageant princess whose
talent and precocious nature drew many admirers. Thus when JonBenét’s strangulated
body was found the day after Christmas in the basement of the family’s home, the
immediate thought was that someone obsessed with the little girl had broken in
and killed the child. But that theory was quickly debunked.

Police then took an
interest to JonBenét’s 9-year-old brother, Burke, particularly because he had
often been left in the shadows of his sister’s pedestal and thus showed little
emotion over her loss. But after interviews and further investigation, it became
evident that the boy had nothing to do with the killing.

So who did kill this
little princess?

Investigations were difficult
as detectives found themselves dealing with a compromised crime scene (yes, the
body had been moved—a slip-up that can be blamed on a lack of police presence
on the crime scene). The came across a ransom note, but upon further scrutiny,
the note proved to be fake. Suspicions then turned to the Ramseys.

The film is riveting
and revives the JonBenét murder mystery. The story gives provides a window into
the Ramsey’s lives and highlights the hindrances the police faced in trying to
solve this heinous crime. But what really happened to JonBenét that dismal
Christmas in Colorado remains a mystery to this day. No one knows for sure who
killed JonBenét.

Who Killed JonBenét?
premieres this coming Saturday, November 5 at 8pm ET/PT.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Cahn brings us
another remarkable book, The Book of
Mysteries.

Similar
to Cahn’s New York Times bestseller, The Harbinger, Cahn’s latest book also uses fictional
narrative to bring forth biblical truths. (“The teacher” represents Jesus.) Yet
this book is not a novel. With 365 short chapters, The Book of
Mysteries is more of a daily devotional.

What sets Cahn’s writing apart is his insightful biblical
perspective. As a Jewish rabbi turned pastor, Jonathan Cahn possesses profound grasp
of the Bible’s original language and its nuances. Add that to his understanding
of Jewish culture and you have an easy-read book that adds a new dimension to
Biblical reading.

Cahn is considered by many to be more than just a
pastor or intriguing author; he is known as a powerful and prophetic voice to this
generation. His influence is huge. He has spoken to diverse people groups
including the US Congress and the United Nations. He is also president of
Hope of the World, a worldwide evangelistic outreach and he leads the Jerusalem
Center-Beth Israel in Wayne, NJ.

But the best person to talk about Jonathan Cahn and his
work is the rabbi himself. Please enjoy my interview with Jonathan Cahn below.

JD—Wonderful
to connect with you, Jonathan. Your urgent appeals for America to wake up and
return to God during these dark times—and your passion for God’s Word—are
compelling. To what extent does The Book
of Mysteries echo this critical call to repentance?

JC—The Harbinger is the opening of an
ancient biblical mystery, so too The
Mystery of the Shemitah. The reader of The Book of Mysteries will have hundreds of biblical mysteries
opened up. Some of these mysteries deal with end-times as do the first books –
such as The Apostasia, The House of Spirits, The Fourth Creature, The
Chiasma, etc. Others are mysteries of heaven, mysteries of the
ages, mysteries behind world history, mysteries of God’s Word. It even
opens up mysteries behind the reader’s life and destiny. But what binds
them all together, on top of the uncovering of God’s mysteries, is that each is
not only the revelation of mysteries, but the call to one’s heart and life, the
call of repentance, change, and transformation. In the first two books, the
call was more on a national level. In The
Book of Mysteries, it’s on a personal and individual level. Since each
mystery contains keys and truths to apply to one’s life, to change and
transform one’s life, I believe it will be a life-changing journey for the
reader. Beyond that I pray that The
Book of Mysteries strengthens their faith, deepens their devotion to God,
and empowers them for breakthrough. And prophetically, I believe the days
ahead will be very challenging for believers. So I’ve written The Book of Mysteries to strengthen
God’s people.

JD—I
like that The Book of Mysteries is
divided into 365 sections so it can be used as a daily reading for those who
like that format. Overall, how does the book compare to The Harbinger and The
Shemitah? In other words, what ways do the three books intertwine or
differ?

JC –
Yes. The Book of Mysteries
functions on several different levels. In one realm, of course, it is the
revelation of the mysteries. On another realm, it is a novel and an
odyssey. On the other hand, since it is a journey of 365 days, it also
functions as a daily devotional, and yet because of its uniqueness, unlike
other devotionals. So it can be read straight through, or every day, or at
any rate as led by the reader. This is also what was used in The
Harbinger. There a prophet uncovers the revelations to the man
Nouriel. Here the mysteries are opened up by a man called the teacher, to
the other, his disciple.

JD—As
well as a powerful preacher, you are also a riveting storyteller. What made you
choose fiction as an outlet for your message?

JC - In
The Harbinger, I was led to open up
prophetic truths through a narrative, a story, to make it easier to receive the
depth of what was being unveiled. In the same way, the revelations in The Book of Mysteries is opened through
a narrative. A man journeys into the desert where he meets a man simply
known as ‘the teacher.’ The teacher takes the man on a one
year journey, through desert plains, mountains, caverns, tent villages, and
mystery filled chambers. So the reader is, likewise, taken along the
journey. Every day, the teacher opens up a new mystery, a new lesson, a
new revelation. So the reader is taken along the journey as if he
was the student - experiencing them as directly from the teacher - ascending
mountains, entering dark chambers, even attending a wedding of desert
tent-dwellers, and each in place receiving a mystery to touch his or her
life.

JD—What
is the most important thing you’d like the readers to take away from The Book of Mysteries?

JC—
That God is amazing – that there’s no end to His mysteries, His wonders, His
awesomeness, and His love. And that we must never stop seeking Him. If
we open up our lives to seek – we will find. The journey is neverending.

JD— What
do you see as America’s greatest need today? And how can the body of Christ
help meet this need?

JC—Return
to God. Humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, turn from our sinful ways,
be not silent, be not intimidated, be not compromised, but be bold, proclaim
the Gospel, manifest His love, and shine as lights in the darkness.

JD—Compelling words from a master storyteller with a
powerful message.

Published by FrontLine, an imprint of Charisma, The Book of Mysteries is sure to be
another bestseller. Find your copy in major bookstores everywhere.

Monday, July 18, 2016

I was asked to write an article on the recent terrorist massacre in Nice from the perspective of someone who lived just a few hours from there for over two decades. My article was first published in Assist News, so feel free to read it directly there -- especially if you want to see more photos that I'll publish here. It is also published on CrossMaps. Otherwise for the basic content, read on.

As terror strikes France again killing
84—including ten children and two Americans—and wounding over two hundred
people, many fears and questions arise. As onlookers enjoyed Bastille Day
celebration fireworks on July 14th (similar to America’s
Independence Day), a van full of explosives and ammunition charged into the
crowds at the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, southern France wreaking chaos.

This deadly massacre came just eight months
after the deadly terror attack at the Bataclan in Paris (see my article here: http://www.assistnews.net/index.php/component/k2/item/1225-paris-city-of-sadness) and was preceded by the deadly January 2015 Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack. Earlier this
year, Belgium was struck with terror, not to mention many other parts of the
world, including closer to home in Orlando at the gay Pulse nightclub last
month (and in San Bernadino, California in November 2015). The rapid escalation
of these massacres is alarming.

But what is it about France that particularly
allows such heinous acts to creep in?Let’s look more closely at what happened in
Nice and try to understand.

First take a look at the killer. Tunisian born Mohamed Lahouaiej
Bouhlel was a career criminal known to police. He was also a radicalized
Muslim. According to Col.
Allen West’s recent article, Bouhlel was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire on officers.France’s prime minister Hollande says that Bouhlel “was radicalized very quickly”. He was known as aggressive and a loner who became
depressed when his wife left him. But none of this suggests why someone to open
themselves up to radicalization so we need to look at it in its context.
France.

As a
former missionary ministering in France for 22 years, I will share my
experience. Many people we met were charming, but few knew God. And it was nonethless
not uncommon to meet people who were also agressive, lonely or depressed. No doubt, an education system which
propogates that God does not exist didn’t help; it offers no hope.

We
lived in a village between Nimes and Montpellier (where we founded a church and
the Nimes Theological Institute). Many of our neighbors were Muslims. Among them,
several were violent, and threatened to beat up kids in our church. In our 22
years there, few Muslims received the Lord in spite of our reaching out to them.
Only one girl in our Bible college, Naima, was a former Muslim. (She had
escaped from Algeria where her life was in danger because she had received
Christ via a radio broadcast.)

Our strategy
to reach the Muslims was no different than the way we hoped to reach everyone
else:: prayer, friendship (where possible), evangelism.

We
often rose early to walk around the village and pray for souls. Many people
from our church joined us. Then, every Saturday night, together with people
from our church, we would evangelize in Nimes, Montpellier or even Marseilles—a
port city about 1½ hours from where we lived, which is reportedly 40% Islamic. And, one of my favorite activities, on Saturday afternoons, we
held a Bible club for kids living in the Zup (aka project areas). Many of those
children came from Muslim families. We would ask the mothers (we rarely saw any
fathers) if we could take the kids for a few hours to play games, enjoy a yummy
snack and—wait for ii—teach the Bible. Perhaps the prospect of getting rid of
their kids for a few hours was too much to resist; many let the kids come.

But
here’s the cruncher. Contrary to French people who average one child per family,
sometimes two, Muslims have many
children. They are encouraged to proliferate and thereby take over nations. So
we typlically had, for example, Achbed, Rachid, Mohamed, Karim and Moustafa—all
from one family. This was between 1981 and 2004. Thus, all those children are
adults today. To my knowledge few are going on with Jesus today, but all of
them who attended regularly heard the Gospel. When things get rough, let us
hope they will remember who the real God is.

But
what about all the Muslims who never hear the Gospel? When we lived in France,
there were reportedly only ½% evangelical Christians in the nation. No wonder
we never came across another church or Christian evangelizing. Such absence of
the Gospel message leaves a vacuum. And together with a sense of hopelessness,
vacuums can open doors to dangerous ideology.

It is
worth noting that France, like the UK and Germany, has
opened her arms wide to refugees and particularly those from Muslim countries
for decades. Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, the Front
National MP for Vaucluse sees this as a link to terrorism. In a video
posted on Facebook, she recognized that terrorism is the killers goal, but
suggests that it is fostered by excessive immigration. "Those also
responsible are those who each year allow a number of
immigrants equivalent to the size of the city of Bordeaux, to legally
enter France" states Maréchal-Le Pen. She also tweeted, “If we don’t
kill Islamism, it will kill us.”

Whether we agree with those statements of
not, it seems that France has reached a tipping point. And it came about
progressively, slowly, like boiling a frog. And while the influx may have begun
in part because France feels bad about colonizing Algeria in the 1800s, it is
now a way of life and will probably not be stopped. So what can we do? I do not
pretend to have all the answers but here a biblical response. Let’s pray for
laborers to go into the harvest, for churches to actively live and preach the
Gospel. Let’s pray for souls and evangelize.

Who knows. God might put someone on our
path who doesn’t yet know Jesus but who, like my husband and I, may end up
church-planting and evangelizing in France. Some sow, some water. Everyone has
a part to play. What is yours?

About Me

Author, Freelance Writer & Speaker (www.JaneyDeMeo.com), Founder & Director of Orphans First (www.orphansfirst.org).
I'm British & speak fluent French & poco Italiano. I spent 22 years in France where my husband, Louis, and I planted several churches, a Theological Institute, a Christian Day School -- and where our kids were born--all by God's grace. I'm founding director of ORPHANS FIRST, a non-profit ministry helping needy children worldwide - www.orphansfirst.org
I'm also a freelance writer and author of several books including: "Heaven Help Me Raise These Children!" - Biblical Answers to Practical Parenting Issues. I am a Christian and a free-thinker (I think), a pastor's wife, mother, women's teacher...
My heart breaks every day for the suffering children (& animals) of the world. That's why I founded Orphans First.